Joysticks and other control actuators provide an interface allowing an operator to control of one or more functions of a machine, such as an aircraft, a crane, truck, underwater unmanned vehicle, wheelchair, surveillance camera, computer, etc. Conventional joysticks include a stick member pivotally mounted to a base and include components to generate signals indicating the stick's displacement from a neutral position. In addition, joystick controllers often include one or more button or knob-type actuators allowing an operator to initiate predefined machine functions, such as firing a weapon in a video game running on a computer or gaming machine. Typical joystick actuators, however, provide only a limited number of degrees of freedom (DoF), and thus are unable to implement more complicated operator interface challenges.